PRINT THIS PAGE | E-MAIL THIS PAGE

Sunday, May 31, 1998

Stars must find offense

By Tim Cowlishaw / The Dallas Morning News

DETROIT -- For much of the season, they formed the best line on the Dallas Stars' roster. If Dallas is going to extend its season beyond the middle of next week, they might have to be the best line in the Western Conference finals.

Say hello (again) to Jamie Langenbrunner, Mike Modano and Jere Lehtinen.

Desperate for offense late in Game 3, Ken Hitchcock reunited the trio. On their second shift together, Lehtinen scored his second goal of the night, with an assist from Modano. Three minutes later, Modano scored his first goal of the series, with an assist from Langenbrunner.

The Stars are desperate for a win in Sunday's Game 4. Otherwise, the Stars go back to Dallas in need of three consecutive victories to capture this series. So they need big play from their revived big three.

"I don't like to think in terms of offense," Hitchcock said Saturday after the trio skated together in practice. "They have to carry us as a strong two-way line.

"We feel like Jamie's game is starting to get up to speed now. Lehtinen was very good for us (Friday). It was a strong line that (Friday) night."

And it will get the bulk of the attention of the Red Wings' defense. That means getting knocked around by the "Grind Line" of Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby and Joey Kocur at times, going against the speed of Sergei Fedorov's line at other times and also dealing with veterans Nicklas Lidstrom and Larry Murphy in the Red Wings' defensive zone.

"I thought we had a good third period together -- we clicked pretty well," Langenbrunner said. "Maybe we'll be able to give the team a little jump start Sunday."

Langenbrunner's spot on Benoit Hogue's line will be taken by Greg Adams, or rookie Jamie Wright if Adams' neck prevents him from playing. Lehtinen switches places on the right side with Mike Keane, who goes to Guy Carbonneau's line.

Injuries to Modano, Lehtinen, Adams and Joe Nieuwendyk caused regular shuffling of lines during the season. But for much of a three-month stretch from November into February, Modano, Lehtinen and Langenbrunner formed the Stars' top line. Langenbrunner had 17 goals in the Stars' first 37 games and was on a pace for a breakthrough 35-goal season. But he tailed off, as 22-year-olds sometimes do, and finished with 23 goals.

Langenbrunner hasn't scored a goal in the playoffs, but he arguably has been the Stars' top wing the last two games.

As for Lehtinen, he didn't seem to be all the way back from the knee injury he suffered against San Jose until Friday night. When he blew a wrist shot by Chris Osgood in the second period of a 4-0 game, it was the first sign that Lehtinen was turning the corner.

His second goal of the game signaled he's ready to be a factor for the rest of the series.

"The only thing we could do when we got down (4-0) was try to get something going," Lehtinen said. "We got a couple of goals together pretty fast in the third period. Still, you can't let Detroit score five goals. It means you have to score six."

The Stars aren't looking for that kind of production from this line. In fact, Hitchcock puts goal-scoring down on the list of priorities for Modano.

"For us to win, he has to be the tenacious player he was almost all year," Hitchcock said. "It was a lot easier for him when Joe (Nieuwendyk) was in the lineup. We had him in a different role then. Now, we need him to play a checking role, to be a tenacious player ... and then to score goals."

Modano acknowledged that his scoring slump in the playoffs -- Friday's tip-in was his first goal in May -- has much to do with Nieuwendyk's absence.

"He gave us that other threat for teams to worry about," Modano said. "If teams focused on me, it opened things up for him. Joe meant a lot to me, and he meant a lot to Greg Adams, too.

"Right now, we've just got to check hard, play better defense. We lost the puck in the neutral zone last night, (and) we made some bad plays. We know that if we defend well in our zone, we win a lot of hockey games."

The Stars don't need to win a lot, only once in Joe Louis Arena. Their next opportunity comes Sunday at 1 p.m. It might fall on Modano, Langenbrunner and Lehtinen to see that this isn't their last chance to win here.

---

(c) 1998, The Dallas Morning News.

Visit The Dallas Morning News on the World Wide Web at http://www.dallasnews.com/

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.